Sweet Things
by Darkfire Galaxy
Summary: Another idea that just popped into my head out of nowhere. Maddy's birthday lands on a dark moon and there's trouble brewing in the Vaughn household.


Wolfblood

Sweet Things

Maddy's birthday party was in full swing. Tom, Shannon, Rhydian and Jana were over and were watching werewolf movies with her so that they could teach Jana about one of the legends their species had spawned. The movie was just reaching fever pitch, with blood flying everywhere in a sea of snapping teeth and flailing claws. Rhydian leaned back and slipped Maddy's hand into his. As he did so, she too relaxed back and rested her head on his shoulder.

"What are you lot all doing then?" Emma asked as she walked in. She was clearly drowsy from the absence of the moon, but she was fighting to stay awake.

"Not much really." Maddy replied.

"Well look sharp, we've got a fire in the house!"

"What?" Maddy sprang up like there was a rocket strapped to her back. Just then, Dan entered carrying a birthday cake with seventeen candles in the top. Maddy rolled her eyes and visibly relaxed as everyone sang happy birthday. Maddy blew the candles out, and then Emma took them all into the kitchen to cut the cake.

"I'll do it, Maddy." Emma said. "Knives aren't for cubs."

"I'm not a cub, Mum!" Maddy's eyes blazed with fury at the blatant insult.

"Emma, she's seventeen now. She's helped me in my workshop once or twice with cleaning my equipment and she's still got all her fingers and toes." Dan said. Emma reluctantly gave Maddy the knife and she cut the first slice for herself.

"How big a piece do you want, Rhydian?" she asked.

"I'll just have a small slice thanks." Rhydian replied.

"Rhydian, it's my birthday. You can live a little." Maddy said, pouting slightly.

"I am living a little." Rhydian said. "I've been living since I was born. I'm just a bit full after the lunch your mum made."

"Okay, I suppose you did eat quite a bit at lunch." Maddy cut him a thin slice and gave it to him. She carried on cutting slices until all the kids and her Dad had a piece.

"Come on, let's go and finish the movie." Jana suggested.

"Don't I get a piece of cake?" Emma said, pointing to the empty plate on the table that she'd laid out for herself.

"Not after calling me a cub you don't." Maddy said. "If you want one, you can cut it yourself."

"I think someone needs locking in the den again, Dan." Emma remarked, turning to her husband.

"I think she's quite right, actually." Dan replied, earning a smack on the arm from Emma.

"You're no help, you know that?" Maddy and her friends left her parents to fight and sat down on the sofa. Maddy hit play on the DVD and they all tucked into their cake. Rhydian ate his quickly and then downed his drink in one.

"Are you okay, Rhydian?" Maddy asked.

"Yeah, I just needed a drink." Rhydian replied. Once everyone was finished, he took their plates through for them as well as his glass. When he came back, he had another glass of water.

"Are you thirsty by any chance?" Shannon commented.

"Yeah, I've just drained about two more glasses while I was in there." Rhydian told her.

"Are you okay?" Maddy asked. "You don't usually drink that much so quickly."

"I'm just a bit thirsty." Rhydian said as he sat next to her and she rested her head against him again. They let the movie play, paying more attention to each other. Rhydian loved the way her hand felt in his. Her skin was so silky and smooth. Just being around her relaxed him as well. He wanted to just rest his head on top of hers and just go to sleep. Maddy loved how comfy his shoulder was to rest her head on. With each passing second, she could feel her eyelids getting heavier and heavier.

As the end credits of the movie rolled, Tom Shannon and Jana looked over to see Maddy and Rhydian slumped against each other on the sofa. Maddy's head rested on Rhydian's shoulder and Rhydian's head rested on top of hers. Both of them were fast asleep.

"Am I going insane or are they asleep?" Jana muttered, leaning over and waving her hand in front of their faces. Tom and Shannon were biting the inside of their cheeks to kill the laughter. They'd seen how comfortable the two of them were getting since Rhydian had sat back down.

"I think we'd best leave them to it." Tom said. "Since it's a dark moon, I'm amazed they've lasted this long."

"It's probably the excitement of Maddy's birthday that kept us awake." Jana said, letting out a loud yawn.

"Let's leave the lovebirds to it and we'll flick through my stash of movies at home." Shannon suggested.

"I think I'll just go back to the caravan." Jana said. "I'll see the rest of you at school tomorrow."

"Tom, do you want to come over?" Shannon asked.

"Yeah, I'll stop off at mine and get some movies to bring as well." Tom replied. The three teenagers stood up to leave. Just as they were on their way to the door, Emma spotted them.

"You're not leaving already are you?" she asked.

"The lovebirds have fallen asleep from the dark moon." Tom told her. "We don't mind though. Jana looks ready to drop dead, so Shannon and I are going back to hers for a bit of an after party."

"Well, thanks for coming over." Emma said. "I'm sorry it's not livelier."

"It's no bother." Jana succumbed to a yawn as she spoke. "At least it was today and not a school day."

"I suppose you're right." Emma muttered. "By the way Jana, I just want to say that we're really proud of you. You've really taken to human life. Everyone at your school is totally fooled and buys your cover."

"Thanks Mrs Smith. It really means a lot that you let me stay." Jana said.

"Please Jana, call me Emma." Emma replied. Jana nodded and the three of them left. Sod's law dictated that Maddy and Rhydian started to wake up just a couple of minutes after the door shut.

"Where the hell did they go?" Rhydian muttered, trying to focus on what was going on around him.

"You two fell asleep, so they went home when the movie finished." Emma told them.

"They didn't even bother to wake us up!" Maddy fumed. "I shall be having words tomorrow!"

"We're dead." Rhydian commented.

"No, you'll be okay." Maddy assured him. "You wouldn't leave me without saying goodbye."

"I need a drink." Rhydian muttered, grabbing his glass and going through to the kitchen.

"Seriously Rhydian, is something the matter?" Maddy asked.

"I just don't like having the taste of sugar in my mouth." Rhydian said. "I'm not really a fan of sweet things. That's why I only have a small slice of cake. When you think about it, I rarely even have chocolate."

"If you didn't want a piece of cake, all you had to do was say." Maddy told him, looping her arms around him and nuzzling her head into his chest.

"No, I always have a piece of birthday cake. I like to join in celebrating birthdays." Rhydian muttered drowsily as he hugged Maddy back. "Now stop hugging me. You're too comfy and I might fall asleep standing up." His protest was met with the realisation that Maddy's breathing had slowed. As Rhydian focused in on her, he could hear a gentle and almost inaudible snoring noise drifting up from her. Gently, Rhydian picked Maddy up bridal style and started carrying her up the stairs. He set her down on her bed laid next to her, draping an arm across her. Maddy stirred slightly and buried deeper into his warmth.

"Goodnight, Rhydian." She dug her face into the warm area where his neck met his shoulder and drifted off to sleep, knowing it was pointless to try staying awake any longer.

Line Break!

Rhydian and Maddy were woken the next morning by the sound of a ringing phone. The dark moon was over, but after such a long sleep the teen wolves were disoriented and grouchy.

"Are you going to answer that?" Rhydian muttered, wiping sleep out of his eyes.

"That's your tasteless ringtone." Maddy growled. Rhydian pulled his phone out of his pocket to find that sure enough, Mrs Vaughn's name was flashing on the caller ID bar. Rhydian pressed the button to answer and put the phone onto speaker since he couldn't be bothered to lift it to his ear.

"Rhydian, are you there?" Mrs Vaughn's panicked voice blared from the phone. at that moment, Rhydian's eye caught sight of the time at the top of his screen.

"This had better be very important at 2:02 in the morning." Rhydian growled. Just then, the two Wolfbloods caught on to other voices in the background. "Wait, who's there with you?" Rhydian asked.

"Rhydian, Ollie's having trouble breathing!" Mrs Vaughn told him. "I know you're round Maddy's and I know you're probably tired but I need you over here to watch Joe while I go to hospital with the paramedics." Rhydian could hear the faint sound of paramedics shouting behind him, but one thing they said at that moment caught his attention.

"Did one of them just say something about CPR?" Rhydian was starting to panic now.

"Just please get over here and don't wake Maddy if you can avoid it. I don't want to drag her into this." Mrs Vaughn begged

"It's too late for that. I'm up now." Maddy called into the phone as she threw off her shirt and grabbed a fresh one from her already open wardrobe. Normally she'd have waited until Rhydian left the room, but since it was an emergency she chose to throw modesty to one side for this one time.

"We're on our way." Rhydian said before hanging up. Maddy dug into her drawer and pulled out her pen and paper. She quickly scribbled a barely legible note to her parents as Rhydian pulled his shoes on. Once they both had shoes on, Maddy taped the note to her bedroom door and they stepped out into the night. The cool air slapped them around the face in just the way they needed to focus properly. They ran to the Vaughn's house with Rhydian running just in front. Mrs Vaughn was standing on the doorstep already, waiting to see them in.

"Oh, thank god you're both here!" she gasped as she embraced the pair of them and tried to stop herself from breaking down into a sobbing mess.

"Step out of the way please!" a voice behind them commanded. Rhydian and Maddy led Mrs Vaughn over to the side as the paramedics wheeled the stretcher out through the front door. They could all hear Joe crying from inside.

"Go with Ollie to the hospital." Maddy instructed Mrs Vaughn. "We'll see to it that Joe gets his breakfast and everything."

"Thank you so much." Mrs Vaughn sobbed. "You didn't have to do this, Maddy. I really owe you."

"That's Bullcrap and you know it." Maddy snapped. "You know Rhydian would have done the same if I were facing the same odds. Now go on, they're starting the engine." Mrs Vaughn nodded and left, leaving Maddy and Rhydian to rush into the house. Joe was on the sofa in floods of tears. They swept him into their arms and let him cry until he'd tired himself out.

"Come on, mate." Rhydian said once Joe had exhausted himself about an hour later. "The best thing you can do is go back to bed and lie down. You don't have to go to sleep, but just lie down. You can use my bed if you like and we can all watch movies on my TV since mine's not broken."

"Thanks Rhydian, you're the best." Joe hugged him and then grabbed one of Maddy and Rhydian's hands as they led him to Rhydian's room.

"Do you want to watch Aliens VS Predator Requiem or Robocop?" Rhydian asked.

"He's not old enough for either of those!" Maddy pointed out.

"I think we can make an exception tonight." Rhydian said. "Are you up for it, Joe?"

"Let's watch Aliens VS Predator." Joe said. Rhydian chuckled and put the disc in the player. The Predalien wrought carnage on the screen for about two and a half hours before the end credits started rolling. As the three of them were about to drift off, Rhydian's phone started playing music.

"Hello?" Rhydian held the phone to his ear and waited for news. Eventually he hung up and let out a breath he didn't know he was holding.

"What's the news?" Maddy asked.

"He had an abscess on one of his tonsils. He scratched his throat on a crisp a few days ago; I remember being there. It must have cut deeper than anyone realised and got infected."

"That sounds serious." Tears welled up in Joe's eyes.

"It's a serious thing, but correcting it is relatively minor." Rhydian said. "All he needed was his tonsils out. He's going to have a sore throat for the next few days and be eating ice cream after every meal for a little while. Joe burst into relieved tears and the two Wolfbloods hopped up onto Rhydian's bed to hug him again.

"Did she say when she'd be home?" Maddy asked.

"No, but she asked me to thank you again." Rhydian told her. "She said you're a really sweet person."

"I guess that's our relationship finished then." Maddy muttered." A look of confusion crossed Rhydian's face. "You told me you didn't like sweet things, remember?"

"You're not a thing though." Rhydian said, kissing her on the forehead. "You're a beautiful person who gave up time that she could cheerfully have spent sleeping to come and help us. You're right, I don't like sweet things. Sweet people like you on the other hand are a different story. Never objectify yourself like that."

"That's probably one of the nicest things anyone's ever said to me." Maddy said. With that, they both relaxed back next to Joe, and the three of them drifted off for the next few hours until Ollie arrived home. To say that they were shattered from the turmoil of the night was a massive understatement. And as soon as Ollie arrived home, Maddy's phone went off. Her parents had just woken up and found the note taped to her door.

Line Break!

Literally no sooner had Mr Jefferies got seated in his office than the phone started ringing.

"Hello, this is Mr Jefferies."

"Hello Mr Jefferies, this is Mrs Vaughn." Mr Jefferies opened the register document for the day.

"Is everything alright, Mrs Vaughn?" he asked.

"Yes, I'm ringing to let you know that Maddy and Rhydian won't be in school today." Mrs Vaughn replied. "Rhydian was spending the night at Maddy's, but we had a mild crisis here. The pair of them ran round to our house and stayed up with Joe while Ollie had his tonsils out. They've been up until about an hour ago and they're both upstairs sleeping it off now. I spoke to Mrs Smith and it would have been nothing short of child abuse to send them in as they were."

"I'm so sorry to hear that's happened." Mr Jefferies said as he marked Maddy and Rhydian absent for the day. "If there's anything we can do here at all, please feel free to ask."

"I think we're okay, thank you." Mrs Vaughn told him. "I just have to ring the junior building to ring Ollie sick and Joe absent for the day, and then I'm off to bed myself."

"I could pass the message along for you." Mr Jefferies offered. "They'd need your signature on a sick form for them for their files, but that can be done whenever you're ready."

"If you could do that, then that would be wonderful." Mrs Vaughn replied. "I just literally feel like I'm about to go over on the spot."

"I know the feeling." Mr Jefferies remarked. "You should see me after a long night's marking."

"I bet it's something to behold." Mrs Vaughn said. "Anyway, Ollie will be off for a few days, Joe will be back in tomorrow and so will Maddy and Rhydian."

"Alright then, Mrs Vaughn; have a good rest. It sounds like you've all earned it." Mr Jefferies hung up the phone and started typing an e-mail to the junior building.

Meanwhile, Mrs Vaughn was tackling the ever more tiring climb up the stairs to bed. Joe had moved back to his and Ollie's shared room so that Joe could feel more at ease. But as Mrs Vaughn made it to the top of the stairs, it was Rhydian's room she couldn't resist looking into. There lay Rhydian and Maddy, secure in each other's embrace. Mrs Vaughn made her way to bed, now knowing that all was right with her family again. It truly warmed her heart to see such sweet things.

 **End!**


End file.
